Radical ideas for the RWC for 2011 and beyond

Don't reduce the size of the contest, increase it. 24 teams, 4 groups of 6...

OK, that's not exactly radical. But, then, borrow an idea from sevens, and have the cup, plus a shield and plate competition.

Cup quarter-finals drawn more or less as shown, shield from those that finish 3rd and 4th, plate from those that finish 5th and 6th.

We, the fans, get more rugby (hooray). We still have possibilities of matches like Ireland v Georgia providing scares and upsets. Matches like England v Samoa keep their significance, but are repeated elsewhere. We still have the possibility of such good natured mismatches as NZ v Portugal - and whilst it was a mismatch, it was fun to watch.

And, at the end of the time, every team plays a knockout match (at least one) against a side that's roughly, in this month or two of the 4 year cycle, on a similar level with them. This would make matches like Georgia v Namibia, which before the tournament looked like an empty contest except to the players, suddenly rampant with meaning, just as much meaning as Wales v Australia yesterday.

The other alternative, move to two 16-strong contests - which gives us even more matches! But, let the middle-16 (the 8 that don't make the cup quarter-finals and the 8 that would make the tier-2 quarter-finals) play a 16-strong knockout format. Seeding the teams that finished top of the lower tier 1-8, and the teams that finished bottom of the upper tier as 9-16, and apply the tennis "round of 16" structure to the games: 1 v 16, 2 v 15 etc.